International Business

Beachwood, Ohio — DDR Corp. has closed a previously announced acquisition of a portfolio of 30 power centers from a joint venture with Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII L.P. and settled its forward equity sale. DDR acquired Blackstone’s 95% share.

The company funded the investment through a combination of proceeds from the issuance of new common equity and unsecured debt, preferred equity and mezzanine loan repayments and the assumption of existing mortgage debt.

 

Garden City, N.Y. — Beth L. Lamport, 70, executive VP with Sabre Real Estate Group LLC died Sept. 27 at her home in Port Washington.

The cause was uterine cancer. “She was a dynamo in the business,” said Kenneth Breslin, a Sabre principal.

 

QVC has appointed Bob Spieth as executive VP of QVC's customer and business services.     He will oversee supply chain, customer service and experience, operations strategy, and corporate real estate and workplace services for both QVC and zulily businesses, with the exception of zulily's corporate facilities.    Spieth joined zulily in 2013 as COO. Prior to zulily, he held several leadership roles with OHL, one of the world's largest third-party logistics companies  

Global Payments president Jeffrey S. Sloan has been named as the company's CEO by the company’s board of directors. He succeeds Paul R. Garcia, who has been the company’s CEO since June 1999 and Chairman since October 2002.  

Under Garcia's leadership, Global Payments became a publicly traded company in early 2001. At that time, Global Payments generated annual revenues of under $350 million, nearly all of which was sourced in the United States. Today, Global Payments is a multinational corporation with nearly $2.5 billion in revenues for fiscal year 2013.

Beachwood, Ohio — DDR Corp. has closed a previously announced acquisition of a portfolio of 30 power centers from a joint venture with Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII L.P. and settled its forward equity sale. DDR acquired Blackstone’s 95% share.

The company funded the investment through a combination of proceeds from the issuance of new common equity and unsecured debt, preferred equity and mezzanine loan repayments and the assumption of existing mortgage debt.

Pittsburgh -- GNC Holdings has acquired A1 Sports Limited, which operates under the Discount Supplements moniker. The company is the leading multi-brand sports nutrition e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom. Terms of the deal, which was funded with cash on hand, were not disclosed.
 
Following the acquisition, GNC.com, LuckyVitamin.com and Discount-supplements.co.uk will continue to operate as separate businesses, each with its own product offerings and target customers.

New York -- Masayoshi Son, billionaire founder of tech/telecom company SoftBank Corp., has reportedly won bidding for the Tiffany Building in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo. According to Forbes, Son paid about $36 million for the 10-story glass building.

The Tiffany Building houses the flagship Japanese store of Tiffany & Co. Son did not comment on why he bought the building.